Valentini puffer injured

[witchywoman725]

My two puffers went after the same piece of meat this afternoon and by complete accident the larger one got my Valentini’s snout. They are usually best friends and my valentini shadows my bigger puffer. My big puffer (dogface) has never shown any aggression towards any tank mates and this was definitely an accident.

I have placed my valentini alone in a QT/hospital tank but her nose is pretty red and she has a small cut on the top of her snout. She hasn’t eaten (this just happened about 20min ago though) Has anyone seen anything like this? Is there anything I can do to help her heal?

 

[Crustaceon]

I'd just try to feed her tomorrow in QT without dosing any medication/antibiotics yet. If she eats, she'll probably heal up in a within a week or two on her own.

 

[threebuoys]

I think I would just observe for a day or two but be prepared to treat with an antibiotic at the first sign of infection.

Pretty fish!

 

[witchywoman725]

Any particular antibiotic recommended?

 

[vetteguy53081]

My two puffers went after the same piece of meat this afternoon and by complete accident the larger one got my Valentini’s snout. They are usually best friends and my valentini shadows my bigger puffer. My big puffer (dogface) has never shown any aggression towards any tank mates and this was definitely an accident.

I have placed my valentini alone in a QT/hospital tank but her nose is pretty red and she has a small cut on the top of her snout. She hasn’t eaten (this just happened about 20min ago though) Has anyone seen anything like this? Is there anything I can do to help her heal?

Looks like a stub or impact damage but can also be bacterial. Has it showed interest in food ?
Is the breathing rate normal or labored?
If it has worsened by morning and fish unable to it, you will want to start treatment in a quarantine setting using either Maracyn 2 OR Seachem kanaplex for at least 5 days with added aeration via air stone

 

[threebuoys]

Kanaplex is a standard recommendation. Ruby Rally Pro would be another. Just make sure what you use is a true antibiotic and not an Herbal remedy. Your LFS should be able to help.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Any particular antibiotic recommended?

Most external bacterial infections of marine fish are gram negative ones. First, you want to wait to see if there is any signs of a pending infection; increasing redness or worsening of symptoms. Hopefully, the mechanical damage itself won't be an issue. The fish may heal on its own if so. Using antibiotics isn't risk-free, so I generally don't recommend them unless there are clear signs of an infection. If so, there are a variety of ones you could use - which one is always a guess (since we can't do sensitivity studies on the fish). One of my common ones is Neoplex. You could also try Maracyn 1 and Maracyn 2 at the same time.

Jay

 

[MnFish1]

My two puffers went after the same piece of meat this afternoon and by complete accident the larger one got my Valentini’s snout. They are usually best friends and my valentini shadows my bigger puffer. My big puffer (dogface) has never shown any aggression towards any tank mates and this was definitely an accident.

I have placed my valentini alone in a QT/hospital tank but her nose is pretty red and she has a small cut on the top of her snout. She hasn’t eaten (this just happened about 20min ago though) Has anyone seen anything like this? Is there anything I can do to help her heal?

I would give it time

 

[witchywoman725]

Looks like a stub or impact damage but can also be bacterial. Has it showed interest in food ?
Is the breathing rate normal or labored?
If it has worsened by morning and fish unable to it, you will want to start treatment in a quarantine setting using either Maracyn 2 OR Seachem kanaplex for at least 5 days with added aeration via air stone

She didn’t eat tonight but I hoping tomorrow she will- it seemed to shake her up and she immediately hid. Once I moved her to the QT she’s been hovering around just fine. She’s moving around and breathing as normal. It was impact damage from the collision over food… they were both staring at the meat and met in the middle. I will keep a close eye out for infection. Thank you!

 

[vetteguy53081]

She didn’t eat tonight but I hoping tomorrow she will- it seemed to shake her up and she immediately hid. Once I moved her to the QT she’s been hovering around just fine. She’s moving around and breathing as normal. It was impact damage from the collision over food… they were both staring at the meat and met in the middle. I will keep a close eye out for infection. Thank you!

Thats what I thought. If it gets antsy, increase oxygen with air stone

 

[witchywoman725]

Thank you all for the help, unfortunately she died. When we pulled her out after finding her she was pretty transparent and we could see a lot of blood pools from her face to belly so I assume the internal damage was more severe then we could tell when she was still alive.

 

[AcesHighStudios]

Thank you all for the help, unfortunately she died. When we pulled her out after finding her she was pretty transparent and we could see a lot of blood pools from her face to belly so I assume the internal damage was more severe then we could tell when she was still alive.

I’m so sorry to hear she died. I absolutely adore my Valentini puffery, and I would be crushed if something like that happened to her. In fact, I am crushed just to hear about yours.